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Chaos
The is one of the six Magical Realms in Master of Magic. Chaos is combative magic harnessing fire, lightning, and the greater forces of change in the world. The school has a wide selection of summoning and battlefield attack spells, all meant for wrecking enemy assets in a most direct fashion. The mark of the realm is the that appears on the bindings of Chaos Spellbooks in-game, and denotes Chaos "Spellbook Ranks" on this wiki. __TOC__ Description Master of Magic's in-game documentation alludes to the existence of the Chaos Realm and a subservient domain, the Plane of Fire. Chaos Nodes on the surface of Arcanus and Myrror are thought to unleash heat and destructive energies that interfere with the stabilizing influence of the Nature Realm. Some Wizards exploit the tension between these two elemental realms, Nature and Chaos, in pursuit of unusual skills. The Chaos Realm is home to a variety of monsters and mutant freaks. Most of them are associated in mythology with fire, destruction, and the end-times. They can be called up to the surface world by summoners who, for whatever reason, desire total mayhem. Alternatively, users can channel raw power from Chaos and direct it at foes; through various spells and rituals, the power might manifest as fire (for basic attacks), lightning (for more expensive, armor-piercing attacks), or a transcendent destructive force known as Doom (for advanced practitioners that want to blow through an enemy's defense like it wasn't there). An obvious military tool for the powerful and the vicious, Chaos is probably the most widely practiced school of magic among the mortal races. A great variety of Normal Units wield powers derived from this realm. At present, fire-breathing beasts, guild-trained magicians, and mage-heroes are in demand by every sort of Wizard. ;Familiar :A wizard with mainly Chaos spellbooks will take an Imp as a familiar. Traditionally Imps are tiny, mischievous demons that attach themselves to magic-users and their laboratories. Imp familiars could serve as spies, spiritual guides, test subjects, comedians, Grand Viziers... you name it. Acquisition The player may pick up to 11 Chaos ranks when creating a new game. Treasure from Chaos Nodes on Myrror are just about the only reliable source of Chaos spellbooks once the game has begun, and might be targeted by red wizards seeking reduced casting costs in the discipline. While described as being opposed to , Chaos is not incompatible with it or any of the other realms, though, so anyone can pick red spellbooks or find them. Selecting just one Chaos book or two will unlock random Chaos spells for research and fulfill requirements for certain wizard abilities, while leaving room to specialize in something else. For each spellbook rank taken above the first, one Common Chaos spell may be selected to be Known from the start. In their own ways, and depending on the Race you choose, Fire Elemental, Hell Hounds, or Eldritch Weapon can considerably augment your strength and make good starting picks. Picking more books allows more spells to be Known at the beginning, eventual access to the realm's rarest spells, and improved research and casting ability in Chaos. The Casting Cost of summons and combat spells is what separates the dabbler from the professional in this school of magic. Lowering casting costs basically requires all of your spellbook picks, either by taking solid, or plus retorts like Chaos Mastery, Channeler, or Conjurer. See this table for spellbooks' effect on spell knowledge and casting & research discounts. Realm Details Red has 10 spells per degree of Spell Rarity, totaling 40 spells with a cumulative research cost of . Each member holds a discrete research cost increment along the spectrum between (Warp Wood) and (Armageddon). List of Chaos Spells General Pros and Cons Years of playtesting has reckoned Chaos to be the least-exploitable of the magic realms. It builds strength at an ordinary, reliable pace and is no-nonsense. As a game asset, it is arguably more interesting and powerful in the hands of AI opponents like Tauron, who can use their huge AI resource handicaps to attack relentlessly and be extra-brutal in combat. Yet, it will never be said that throwing firestorms around is not entertaining. Pros: * Superb summons, capable of supplanting normal units at all stages * Well-tailored to winning battles with raw mana, either through prior overland summoning or ad hoc battlefield spells * Synergy with advanced "builder" races, making use of their revenues while allowing them to focus on buildings and settlers * The fun factor Cons: * Direct-attack Combat Instants, the forté of Chaos, are less effective than summons and enchantments * No spells for improving the economy * Raising volcanoes and nuking enemy cities is not going to be very helpful for your Score. Fantastic Units The Chaos Realm has ten native Fantastic Unit types. The two Common entries are remarkable. The realm's only Combat Summon, the Fire Elemental, can draw enemy fire, deal out consistent damage, and lessen the need for big garrisons around the map. Hell Hounds, a bargain compared with cavalry and other low-tier troops, can be summoned en masse for early conquests. As with many other Uncommon summons, Chaos' members on that tier, the Fire Giant, Gargoyles, Doom Bat, and Chimeras, suffer from a research cost that prohibits their usage very early, unless the spells are found. These are all fairly mobile units, able to escort heroes and deal out heavy damage. The Rare entries are a definite liability in the group. The Efreet is overpriced and the Chaos Spawn, with its bizarre abilities, is best-suited to disintegrating lesser units. But there are cheaper ways to deal with lesser units. The Very Rare summons are surprisingly slow units. But with and Regeneration, the Hydra's durability is so great that it requires special tactics to handle. The Great Drake, one of the three elemental dragons at the top of the Fantastic Unit hierarchy, is a devastating offensive unit. Sorcery's Sky Drake is a fan-favorite and a much more difficult foe to encounter, but there is little stopping a Great Drake under human command. 1: combat summon, disappears at end of battle. Item Crafting Chaos ranks allow the following spell-like effects to be selected when crafting Magic Items with . True to form, the only enchantments available from this color are damage-oriented loads for magic weapons. But they are best-of-breed. The ability to craft these powers is unlocked whenever the player has the required number of Chaos books on the shelf; no research is necessary, save for the Create Artifact spell. The following Chaos combat spells can be imbued, as reusable charges, into a new magic Wand or Staff once they have been researched. See Spell Charges (Item Power) for more information. Enemy Chaos Wizards Computer players with Chaos magic are pretty much your main enemy. Both their spells and their behavior are geared towards harming you directly, so consider how to best prepare for war. This may be less of a concern with Oberic, Lo Pan, and any wizard who picks up incidental Chaos Spellbooks (whose personalities usually make them less likely to throw spells at you unprovoked), but is virtually always the case with Sharee and Tauron. The AI will, at random, slam on red buttons like Armageddon and Call the Void without thinking twice. We might call such incidents a "trailing indicator" that they should have been eliminated or at least crippled before getting their hands on such toys. Traits When the world is generated, the computer-controlled wizards each make a lottery-ball style roll for Personality and Objective. These traits modify the wizard's behavior, giving them some hard-to-resist compulsions and adding flavor. If the wizard's shelf is stocked primarily with Chaos Books, then this realm will determine how these lottery-ball rolls are weighted. Chaos tends the wizard towards a Personality of "Chaotic" and an Objective of either "Militarist" or "Expansionist" (but guarantees nothing). In cases where spellbook ranks are tied, and the game needs to decide which realm conveys influence, precedence descends in this order: : For instance, Sss'ra's default Myrran build is a tie between two colors, but the game will weight his personality and objective according to his Chaos ranks, not Life. The table below shows the chances each trait has of appearing on a chaos-aligned player, before accounting for the influence of Retorts. ;Chaotic :Every turn, there is a 2% chance the Chaotic wizard will declare war on a wizard he is not already at war with. A Personality Modifier is also randomized each turn between 40 and -40, which changes the difficulty of diplomatic negotiations turn-by-turn, causes random hostile spells and moves, and relations to drift slowly around neutral in the long term (until he randomly declares war). This wizard can be appeased on a good day to get some air and make spell trades. ;Militarist :A "Militarist" has double the chance of training military units and casting summoning spells. Due to their reduced likelihood of constructing new buildings and making alternative spell choices, these units are likely to be primitive and unbuffed, but there will be a ton of them. ;Expansionist :An "Expansionist" wizard has double the chance of building Settlers, and will attempt to sprawl across every available piece of land. Diplomacy Modifiers Chaos Spellbooks on a wizard's shelf provoke two Core Reaction adjustments: Example interactions: :Example 1: Lo Pan and Oberic each adjust their Core Reaction to the other by 0 (-10 for Lo Pan / Oberic having , but +10 for 5 matching books). :Example 2: Lo Pan and Tauron each adjust their Core Reaction to the other by -10 (-20 for Tauron having , but +10 for 5 matching books). Leader personalities, retorts, and other spellbooks on the shelf will cause further adjustments. Category:Chaos Category:Magical Realms